Reed threading aid means



Jan. 21, 1969 H. F. ANDERSON REED THREADING AID MEANS Filed 001:. 18,1965 REED |o METERING ROLLS EYEBOARD CREEL FIG. 2

INVENTOR. HAROLD F. ANDERSON BY Owl; wm

United States Patent 3,422,513 REED THREADING AID MEANS Harold F.Anderson, Frostburg, Md., assignor to Celanese Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 18, 1965, Ser. No. 496,789 US.C]. 28-54 2 Claims Int. Cl. D02h 13/20; D01d 11/04; D01h 13/04 ABSTRACTOF THE DISCLOSURE A reed for threading yarn wherein certain dents of thereed are predesignated in accordance with groupings of the yarn beingthreaded whereby errors in thread-up of the reed are avoided.

This invention relates generally to the winding and reeling art. Itparticularly relates to the beaming of warps from a plurality ofindividual ends of thread or yarn. Even more particularly, thisinvention relates to improved reeds used in beaming apparatus.

A reed is used to combine a plurality of yarn sheets, formed from aplurality of individual yarn packages on a creel, into a single warpsheet, While maintaining the individual yarn ends within the warp sheetseparated from one another. The width and spacing of the 'warp sheet isadjusted by the reed while it is being guided via the reed onto a beamor spool, as it is being wound into a single package onto the beam. Abeam usually contains 800-1200 yarn ends; however, it may even containas many as 3000 or more individual yarn ends.

When collecting such a plurality of individual ends of yarn in a closeside-by-side relationship on a large beam or spool for later use in afabric-forming operation, such as the warp yarn in knitting or weavingmachines, it is of utmost importance that the warp sheet be properlywound onto the beam. Individually yarn ends comprising the warp sheetmust be properly aligned as they are being wound onto the beam. Theymust not cross one another, otherwise the yarn will not unwind properlyin the fabric-forming operation.

Proper beaming or winding requires that the reeds used in the beamingoperation be accurately threaded. In a beaming operation, there may beas many as three reeds. At least one of the reeds is a fan reed; theothers are generally open dent reeds. Each reed dent within the desiredwidth must contain a single yarn end only, and each dent within thedesired width must contain a yarn end. In other words, a reed must bethreaded so that a single yarn end is in a dent, and no dents should bemissed. Whether the reeds are accurately threaded or not is not easilydetermined; and if a mistake is made in threading, it is generally notdiscovered until after the complete reed is threaded. This means if athreading mistake is made, particularly in threading fan reeds, the yarnends starting from the position or dent where the mistake occurs must becut out and the reed from that position outward completely rethreaded.

Threading mistakes are common and often such mistakes occur numeroustimes during the same threading. -Rethreading is time consuming. Itinvolves considerable beamer downtime and increased labor costs. It ishighly desirable therefore to thread a reed correctly the first time.

It is, therefore, the primary object of my invention to provide animproved reed.

Another object is to provide a reed that can be threaded more accuratelythe first time, thereby improving the threading operation and in turnthe overall beaming operation.

It is also an object to reduce the costs involved in threading reeds fora beaming operation to a minimum.

Other objects of my invention will become more apparent from thefollowing detailed description and appended drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 illustrates a schematic view of a beaming operation; and

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged view of a fan reed in accordance with myinvention used in the beaming apparatus shown in FIGURE 1.

In accordance with the general aspects of my invention, an improved reedis provided having a minority of the dents predesignated in accordancewith yarn groupings to aid in proper and accurate threading of the reed.

As illustrated in FIGURE 1 of the drawing, a plurality of individualyarn ends 10 proceed from a source such as creel 11, showndiagrammatically in the drawing, on which is positioned a plurality ofindividual yarn packages (not shown) to eyeboard 12. Yarn sheets 10aemerge from eyeboard 1'2 and proceed to open dent reed .13. Warp sheet10b proceeds from open dent reed 13, over tensioning bars or rods 14,around metering rolls 15, through fan reed 16 and finally is wound onbeam 17.

For purposes of clarity, yarn sheets 10a are indicated on the drawing asa single line emerging from eyeboard 12. The number of yarn sheets may,however, vary from about 4 to 30. Generally, there are 11 yarn sheetsinvolved in a beaming operation. It is understood, of course, by thoseskilled in the beaming art, that the number of yarn sheets is determinedby the number of ends of yarn being beamed and the type creel beingused. A creel, indicated diagrammatically in the drawing, may hold asmany as 3000 or more individual bobbins of yarn. Therefore, warp sheet10b may comprise 3000 or more individual ends of yarn which are woundonto beam 17. Generally, there are 800-1200 yarn ends wound onto a beam.:Each individual yarn end must be threaded through a dent of open dentreed 13 and fan reed 16. The reeds adjust the spacing and width of thewarp sheet and guides the warp sheet as it is being wound onto the beam.

Those skilled in the art will of course understand that particularbeaming apparatus may vary somewhat from that disclosed in FIGURE 1 ofthe drawing. Additional reeds may be provided, if desired. In someinstances, it may be desirable to thread yarn ends directly from onereed to another. Further, although reed I13 has been referred to as anopen dent reed, it may also be a fan reed. Other departures can be madein the apparatus used in beaming without departing from the scope of myinvention.

Hereinafter, my invention is described with respect to a fan reed;however, it applies equally as Well to an open dent reed.

Fan reed 16 in accordance with my invention is shown in greater detailin FIGURE 2 of the drawing. As illustrated in said figure the improvedfan reed 16 comprises a rectangular framework having end of sideelements 18, 19 and bottom and top elements 20, 21 and a plurality oftimes 22. :In a minority of dents 23, a dent being defined as theopening or space between two directly adjacent tines, are locatedspacers 24 which aid thread-up of the reed.

The overall size and dimensions or" the fan reed, the tine size, dentspacing, etc. are determined by the number of yarn ends beamed and theyarn size. My invention is not deemed limited by any particular reeddimension. Moreover, it is not deemed limited by the number of yarn endsbeamed or the yarn size.

Merely by way of explanation, a fan reed may have side elements of fromabout one inch to 10 inches and bottom and top elements of from about 14inches to about 84 inches and have from about 100 to about 3000 tines offrom about one inch to about 10 inches of exposed length. The tines :maybe from about 0.0125 inch to about 0.125 inch thick, by 120" to 250"deep, producing dents of from about 0.0125 inch to about 0.125 inch. Thedesired dimensions of a reed are determined according to the denier ofyarn being processed and the width of beam on which the yarn is wound.Also, desirably thirty percent of the dent space is air space.

Tines 22 are at an angle with respect to bottom element 20 and topelement 21. One half of the tines slope toward side element 19. A firstangle 25 is formed by each time in this half with respect to bottomelement 20. The angle decreases the closer the tine is to side element19, and may vary from about 90 degrees to about 55 degrees. The otherhalf of the tines, as shown, slope toward side element 18, and form anangle 26 with respect to bottom element 20, equal to angle 25 at thesame distance from the center of the reed. Tines 22 are permanently andfixedly secured into bottom element 20 and top element 21 in themanufacture of the reed. The bottom and top elements are cast in a metalmold to incorporate the tines in a manner well known to the molding art.

Spacers 24, which may be of lead, but also may be of plastic or othermaterials, are positioned in certain of dents 23 which are predesignatedin a manner hereinafter described to match groupings of yarn proceedingto the beamer in a beaming operation. The spacers may be incorporatedinto top element 21 during reed manufacture in a manner known to thoseskilled in the metal casting art. The spacers are positioned, forexample, in the reed to match the top or bottom eye in the rows of eyesin an eyeboard having a plurality of horizontal rows of eyes which aresuperposed so that the eyes arein vertical alignment. For example, if aneyeboard has ten horizontal rows of eyes each containing 120 eyes, aspacer is positioned in every tenth dent. W hen beaming 1200 yarn ends,e.g., 1200 yarn ends are provided from 1200 individual bobbinspositioned on a creel. The yarn ends are threaded through the 1200 eyesin the eyeboard abovedescribed to form ten yarn sheets, each containing120 individual yarn ends vertically aligned with the individual yarnends in the other sheets. The ten yarn sheets are threaded, one end at atime, beginning e.-g., with the yarn end emerging from the lower lefteye in the eyeboard and continuing with the yarn end vertically aligned,then threading the lowest end in the eye inthe second vertical row fromthe left, etc. through the dents of a fan reed according to theinvention in order to form and to adjust the width of the warp sheetwhich in turn is wound onto a beam. The reed is provided with an indiciaof some sort, such as spacers 24, in dents which correspond numericallyto certain eyes in the eyeboard or yarn ends coming from the eyeboard.As above described, a spacer is positioned in every tenth dent whichcorresponds to each tenth yarn end being threaded in the reed.Consequently, any error in threading a reed is apparent when each spaceris reached. An inaccurate threading is therefore brought to theoperators attention long before the threading operation is completed.Early recognition of a threading error results in much less work beingcaused by the error. In the fan reed above referred to having spacers inevery tenth dent, at most nine yarn ends would have to be cut out andrethreaded. Using fan reeds now available, however, an operator may haveto cut out as many as 3000 or more yarn ends. Rethreading this many endsresults in considerable beamer downtime and added labor cost. To threada fan reed with 1200 ends, e.g., requires approxi mately hours.

Other means may be used to predesignate certain dents. A reed may, forexample, have tines of different colored material, such as diiTerentcolored metal, e.g., steel and copper. The dents may be designated byproviding that the tines defining the designated dent are of copperwhile the remainder of the tines are of a different colored metal suchas steel.

This invention is further explained, but is not intended to be limitedby the following example.

Example An oval dent fan reed 16 according to the invention is shown inFIGURE 2 of the drawing. Side elements 1 8, 19 measure 10% inches inlength and bottom and top elements 20, 21 measure 42 inches in length.The tines 22 are approximately 0.125 inch thick x 0.150 inch deep andhave an exposed length of 9 inches. The distance occupied by the tinesmeasure 39% inc-hes at the bottom and fans out to 401 2 inches at thetop of the reed. There are 1176 dents 23. Lead spacers 24 measuring /2inch in length protrude down from the top element 21. Such spacers areunited to the top element. The spacers are positioned in every eleventhdent to correspond with the top eye of each vertical row in an eyeboardhaving eleven horizontal rows of eyes with which the fan is used. Inorder that the spacers are centered in the reed, the first spacer ispositioned in the fifth dent from end element 19 while the last spaceris positioned in the sixth dent from end element 18.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, thedescription is intended to be illustrative only and it is to beunderstood that changes and variations may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appendedclaims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. Apparatus for winding a plurality of yarn sheets into a singlepackage comprising:

(a) a creel having a plurality of individual yarn packages locatedthereon;

(b) an eyeboard located at one end of said creel, said eyeboard having aplurality of horizontal rows of eyes, said rows being verticallysuperposed whereby said eyes are vertically aligned and wherebyindividual yarn ends from said packages may be threaded through saideyes to form a plurality of horizontal yarn sheets and vertical rows ofyarn;

(c) a beam on which said yarn sheets are wound into a single package;and

(d) a fan reed comprising a substantially rectangular frame having abottom element, a top element and two side elements connecting saidbottom and top elements, a plurality of tines located between said sideelements, defining a plurality of dents, said tines being fixedlysecured at their ends to said top element and said bottom element, eachof a first half of said tines forming a first angle with respect to thebottom element, each of a second half of said tines forming a secondangle with respect to the bottom element, the second angle being equalto the first angle, whereby the tines formed a fan shape, theimprovement comprising visibly distinguishable spacer means positionedin a minority of said dents to match numerically the top eye of eachvertical row of eyes in the eye board whereby the spacers can be used ascheck points to aid correct threading in the reed.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein a majority of the tines are composedof steel and a minority of the tines are composed of copper.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 954,512 4/1910 Gourdeau 1391 921,605,278 11/1926 Peterson 28-54 2,457,852 l/1949 Tie Fenthal 139-1923,174,207 3/1965 Duncan et a1. 2832 LOUIS K. RIM-RODT, Primary Examiner.

